


Home Again

by cosmic_llin



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: F/F, F/M, Long-Distance Relationship, Post-Canon, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 20:19:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7815712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deanna comes home after a long journey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sophiagratia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophiagratia/gifts).



She’d been gone too long, Deanna thought. She never normally missed the central Federation worlds when she wasn’t there. She’d never quite thought of any one planet as home anyway – home was a ship, home was officers’ quarters filled with her few but carefully chosen belongings. Home was people.

Perhaps that was the trouble. She’d spent a decade, more or less, on the Enterprise, and while it was happening she’d thought she would never want to leave. And then, another decade on the Titan, and even though it hadn’t been the same, she and Will had been together, and they’d crossed paths often enough with the others, as one did in Starfleet.  

By the time they’d left the Titan, she was one of the most sought-after first contact specialists in Starfleet. She’d taught at the Academy for a few years – she and Will and Beverly sharing an apartment, and more often than not a bed – and then this mission had come along.

Five years, deep in the Gamma Quadrant. A year’s journey just to get where she was going, then three years living with a people that another Starfleet ship had briefly encountered on earlier missions, learning their customs, sharing knowledge, paving the way for further contact in the future. It had been fascinating, but the year-long return journey to the wormhole had dragged.

Even messages took weeks to get to her. Will and Beverly both sent them regularly – Will sent video messages, both the more usual kind and the sort that she had to watch in private. She sent her own back. Sometimes she sent him a video message of herself watching his latest one. It got a bit complicated but it was good fun, even if it was nothing like having him there, his body under hers, his emotions close enough to breathe in.

Beverly wouldn’t do that – it was funny, Deanna had seen her perform a love scene onstage in nothing but her underwear, but she was too self-conscious to send a sexy vid message – but she did write long, long letters which had much the same effect.

(For Deanna’s last birthday they’d compromised and sent her a sort of multimedia extravaganza – tight video of Will’s face while Beverly, unseen, brought him to orgasm, and then Beverly’s spine-tinglingly detailed letter about what he’d done for her in exchange, and – a great concession – an audio recording of the event, to listen to while she read the letter.)

Aside from that, it wasn’t as though Deanna was lonely exactly, on the small ship that had carried her and her team of specialists across the galaxy, but it had always taken her a while to get to know people, and even after four years she wasn’t as close with this crew as she had been halfway through her tour on the Enterprise.

Perhaps it was age – it wasn’t as though she didn’t get on with the young, eager staff of the vessel, but most of them saw her as a mentor or a shoulder to cry on. Perhaps it was seniority – technically she was third in command of the ship, and she was in overall charge of the mission itself. Perhaps it was just that not every crew could be a family. Whatever it was, she found herself counting the days until she could go home again.

When the ship docked at Deep Space Nine, it was Beverly who came to meet her at the airlock. Beverly, wearing her hair differently than she had five years ago, new lines around her eyes and at the corners of her smile, but still smelling the same, still feeling the same, both to Deanna’s arms wrapped around her and Deanna’s empathic sense opening joyfully to drink her in. For a few moments Deanna just let herself be lost in Beverly, oblivious to the bustling activity surrounding them.

‘Will’s ride was delayed – distress call,’ Beverly said, before Deanna could ask, as they pulled apart a little. ‘He should be here in another few hours. Until then, I have you all to myself.’

Deanna laced her fingers with Beverly’s and they began to walk down the promenade. The vendors were different than Deanna remembered, and the promenade itself looked as though they’d redecorated it – or perhaps it was just her memory playing tricks. It had been five years ago, after all.

There was everything and nothing to say. They’d written to each other almost every day since Deanna had gone, but it still seemed as though there was too much to catch up on to even know how to begin. Deanna felt oddly tongue-tied.

‘I’ve missed you so much,’ she said, since it was a place to start.

‘I’ve missed you too,’ said Beverly, and Deanna sensed a corresponding warm flare of affection, anxiety coiling beneath it. ‘I almost don’t know what to say to you now that I can look at your face, hear your voice. I’ve gotten so used to writing you letters – adding a sentence or two here and there, reading it over – and now here you are. I’ve almost forgotten how it works.’

By silent agreement, they stopped at one of the windows looking out on the spot where the wormhole appeared whenever it opened, their hands still linked, their thighs touching. Deanna laid her head on Beverly’s shoulder.

‘Among the Teithi,’ she said, ‘if someone goes on a long journey, when they return their families ask them questions to make them prove they are who they say they are.’

Beverly snorted. ‘What a charming tradition.’

‘They were on the outer edge of Dominion territory for centuries – it makes sense they’d develop rituals around that sort of thing. These days they mostly just do it because they always have. It’s fun. The children get involved. People bring cake and make an evening of it.’

‘Sounds nice,’ said Beverly. ‘So? How do I know you’re really the Deanna I said goodbye to five years ago? Would you rather chocolate ice-cream, or vanilla?’

‘Oh, vanilla, I can’t stand chocolate,’ Deanna deadpanned.

‘How do you feel about the Sacred Chalice of Rixx?’

‘It’s one of the most important historical objects on Betazed and I feel extremely privileged to be its holder.’

‘What’s your favourite warp factor?’

‘Six-point-two, definitely.’

‘Really? Mine’s five-point-five. Six-point-two? That’s ridiculous.’

‘Can our friendship survive this monumental difference of opinion?’ Deanna asked.

‘Probably,’ Beverly said comfortably, kissing the top of Deanna’s head. ‘Come on, I’ve been assigned guest quarters on the station. Let’s go home and have dinner.’

‘Let’s go home,’ Deanna agreed, wrapping her arm around Beverly’s and holding on tight.


End file.
